Grew up in Emsworth, Pennsylvania. Educated MIT, including a summer on an exchange program at MAI in Moscow. US Air Force test pilot, also served as exchange pilot in Japn on F-2 program. Total EVA Time: 0.67 days. Number of EVAs: 4.

NASA Official Biography

NAME: Edward Michael "Mike" Fincke (Captain, USAF)

NASA Astronaut Candidate (Mission Specialist)

PERSONAL DATA:

Born March 14, 1967 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but considers Emsworth, Pennsylvania to be his home town. Single. He is the oldest of 9 children. Enjoys hiking, flying, travel, Geology, Astronomy, learning new languages, reading. Captain Fincke is conversant in Japanese and Russian. His parents, Edward and Alma Fincke reside in Emsworth, Pennsylvania.

EDUCATION:

Graduated from Sewickley Academy, Sewickley, Pennsylvania in 1985. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on an Air Force ROTC scholarship and graduated in 1989 with a bachelor of science in Aeronautics and Astronautics as well as a bachelor of science in Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. He then received a master of science in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University in 1990.

ORGANIZATIONS:

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), Society of Flight Test Engineers (SFTE) and the Geological Society of America (GSA).

SPECIAL HONORS:

Recipient of two United States Air Force Commendation Medals, the United States Air Force Achievement Medal, and various unit and service awards. Distinguished graduate from the United States Air Force ROTC and Squadron Officer School and Test Pilot School Programs. Recipient of the United States Air Force Test Pilot School Colonel Ray Jones Award as the top Flight Test Engineer/Flight Test Navigator in class 93B.

EXPERIENCE:

Captain Fincke graduated from MIT in 1989, and immediately attended a Summer exchange program with the Moscow Aviation Institute in the former Soviet Union, where he studied Cosmonautics. After graduation from Stanford University in 1990, Captain Fincke entered the United States Air Force where he was assigned to the Air Force Space and Missiles Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California. There he served as a Space Systems Engineer and a Space Test Engineer. In 1994, upon completion of the United States Air Force Test Pilot School, Edwards Air Force Base, California, Captain Fincke joined the 39th Flight Test Squadron, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, where he served as a Flight Test Engineer working on a variety of flight test programs, flying the F-16 and F-15 aircraft. In January of 1996, he reported to the Gifu Test Center, Gifu Air Base, Japan where he was the United States Flight Test Liaison to the Japanese/United States XF-2 fighter program.

Captain Fincke has over 500 flight hours in over 30 different aircraft types.

NASA EXPERIENCE:

Selected by NASA in April 1996, Captain Fincke reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1996 to begin two years of training and evaluation. Successful completion of this training will qualify him for various technical assignments leading to selection as a mission specialist on a Space Shuttle flight crew.

NASA Group 16 - 1996 Requirement: pilot, engineer, and scientist astronauts for space shuttle flights. Nickname: The Sardines (named because that's how packed they were; at 44 this was the largest ASCAN class of all time) More...

STS-119A Crew: Lindsey, Kelly Mark, Gernhardt, Noriega, Padalka, Fincke, Kononenko O D. Flight delayed after the Columbia disaster. STS-119 was to have flown ISS Assembly mission ISS-15A. It would have delivered the fourth and final set of U.S. solar arrays along with the S6 fourth starboard truss segment. More...

USAF American agency overseeing development of rockets and spacecraft. United States Air Force, USA. More...

Associated Programs

ISS Finally completed in 2010 after a torturous 25-year development and production process, the International Space Station was originally conceived as the staging post for manned exploration of the solar systrem. Instead, it was seemed to be the death knell of manned spaceflight. More...

International Space Station Status Report #04-17 - .
Nation: USA. Related Persons: Fincke; Foale; Kaleri; Kuipers; Padalka. Program: ISS. Flight: ISS EO-8. Summary: Plans for the next crew rotation on the International Space Station are on schedule this week, as the Expedition 8 crew members moved into their final month on orbit and their successors to within weeks of their scheduled launch.. Additional Details: here....

2004 April 9 - .

International Space Station Status Report #04-18 - .
Nation: USA. Related Persons: Fincke; Foale; Kaleri; Kuipers; Padalka. Program: ISS. Flight: ISS EO-8. Three weeks remain in the six-month voyage aboard the International Space Station for Commander Mike Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri as the Expedition 8 crew prepares to return home later this month. Their week aboard the station focused on wrapping up science experiments and tidying up for their replacement crew, which is in Russia for launch preparations. Additional Details: here....

2004 April 16 - .

International Space Station Status Report #04-19 - .
Nation: USA. Related Persons: Fincke; Foale; Kaleri; Kuipers; Padalka. Program: ISS. Flight: ISS EO-8. Summary: Work to prepare for the eighth International Space Station crew exchange continued on schedule this week, both on the Station and at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.. Additional Details: here....

International Space Station Status Report #04-24 - .
Nation: USA. Related Persons: Fincke; Foale; Kaleri; Padalka. Program: ISS. Flight: ISS EO-9. Summary: The new crew of the International Space Station spent its first full week alone concentrating on life science research, spacewalk preparations, and becoming comfortable with their new home in orbit.. Additional Details: here....

EVA ISS EO-9-1 - .
Crew: Fincke; Padalka. EVA Type: Extra-Vehicular Activity. EVA Duration: 0.0097 days. Nation: USA. Related Persons: Fincke; Padalka. Program: ISS. Flight: ISS EO-9. The astronauts exited the station at 21:56 GMT on what was to be a six hour spacewalk to replace a failed gyroscope electronics module. The EVA had already been delayed from 10, then 16 June. The original plan was to use American suits, but a coolant leak in one of those forced the crew to use Russian suits. This in turn meant they would have to exist from the airlock in the station's Russian Pirs module, which in turn extended the distance they would have to travel outside the station to 30 m. Eight minutes after exiting the hatch, a serious leak was detected by Russian ground controllers in Fincke's suit. The crew was called back in and it was planned that the EVA would be repeated six days later.

International Space Station Status Report #04-35 - .
Nation: USA. Related Persons: Fincke. Program: ISS. Flight: ISS EO-9. Mission managers today gave a green light to proceed on Wednesday with a second spacewalk to attempt to repair a circuit breaker on the International Space Station. The repair is planned to restore power to one of four gyroscopes that help orient the complex. Additional Details: here....

2004 June 30 - .

International Space Station Status Report #04-36 - .
Nation: USA. Related Persons: Fincke; Padalka; Walheim. Program: ISS. Flight: ISS EO-9. Summary: The second time was the charm for two International Space Station spacewalkers tonight as they moved with ease to restore power to a key control system, completed a series of bonus jobs to get ahead on future work, and finished up ahead of schedule.. Additional Details: here....

2004 July 1 - .

International Space Station Status Report #04-37 - .
Nation: USA. Related Persons: Fincke; Padalka. Program: ISS. Flight: ISS EO-9. Summary: Flight controllers today fully revved up a gyroscope on the International Space Station that spacewalkers brought back to life Wednesday. They plan to return it to the set of gyroscopes controlling the Station's orientation Friday morning.. Additional Details: here....

International Space Station Status Report #04-38 - .
Nation: USA. Related Persons: Fincke; Padalka. Program: ISS. Flight: ISS EO-9. A newly reactivated gyroscope on the International Space Station today was successfully brought on line for attitude control at 6:20 a.m. CDT. The Control Moment Gyroscope 2 was fully operational at 6,600 revolutions per minute Thursday afternoon after being powered back on as a result of this week's spacewalk. Testing overnight proved its operation adequate for orientation control. Additional Details: here....

International Space Station Status Report #04-41 - .
Nation: USA. Related Persons: Fincke; Padalka. Program: ISS. Flight: ISS EO-9. The International Space Station's Expedition 9 crewmembers passed the halfway point of their six-month mission this week as they prepared for a third spacewalk and joined the world in observing the 35th anniversary of the first landing of humans on the moon. Additional Details: here....

International Space Station Status Report #04-45 - .
Nation: USA. Related Persons: Fincke; Padalka. Program: ISS. Flight: ISS EO-9. Summary: An unpiloted Russian cargo ship blasted off this morning from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a three-day journey to deliver almost three tons of food, fuel, oxygen, water and supplies to the residents of the International Space Station.. Additional Details: here....

2004 August 13 - .

International Space Station Status Report #04-46 - .
Nation: USA. Related Persons: Fincke; Padalka. Program: ISS. Flight: ISS EO-9. Summary: The Expedition 9 crew aboard the International Space Station prepared this week to receive another shipment of supplies. The crew also worked on several science experiments and routine maintenance of Station systems.. Additional Details: here....

EVA ISS EO-9-4 - .
Crew: Fincke; Padalka. EVA Type: Extra-Vehicular Activity. EVA Duration: 0.24 days. Nation: USA. Related Persons: Fincke; Padalka. Program: ISS. Flight: ISS EO-9. The hatch was opened at 16:43 GMT. The astronauts used the Russian Orlan suits M-25 and M-26, requiring them to exit from the Pirs module airlock. The 70 kg PIG container on the Zarya module with the RRZh1 flow regulator valve panel was removed and jettisoned Three antennae were installed on the Zvezda module for future rendezvous and docking operations with the European ATV logistics spacecraft.

2004 September 10 - .

International Space Station Status Report #04-51 - .
Nation: USA. Related Persons: Fincke; Padalka. Program: ISS. Flight: ISS EO-9. Summary: The oxygen-producing Elektron in of the International Space Station was restarted today after a troubleshooting procedure by Expedition 9 Commander Gennady Padalka, but shut down again after operating for just over an hour.. Additional Details: here....

International Space Station Status Report #04-55 - .
Nation: USA. Related Persons: Fincke; Padalka; Chiao; Sharipov; Shargin. Program: ISS. Flight: ISS EO-9; ISS EO-10; ISS EP-7. As the end of its mission approaches, the Expedition 9 crew aboard the International Space Station prepared for the trip home by wrapping up science experiments and continuing maintenance operations of the vehicle. After spending six months onboard, the crew will greet its first visitors one week from today. Additional Details: here....

International Space Station Status Report #04-59 - .
Nation: USA. Related Persons: Fincke; Padalka; Chiao; Sharipov; Shargin. Program: ISS. Flight: ISS EO-9; ISS EO-10; ISS EP-7. The latest crewmembers to live and work aboard the International Space Station took a brief break early this week following handover from their departing colleagues, then began in earnest to acclimate themselves to their new home and orbiting laboratory.
Additional Details: here....